Who Are They?
by Here Strikes Dawn
Summary: Ed is spending some quality time with his son when everything goes very, very wrong. Post-brotherhood, oneshot


Who Are They?

 _White. Ensnaring white surrounded him like he was trapped in a snowy avalanche. A cackle of laughter, and a looming grey Gate threatening to engulf him. He struggled, but to no avail. He was trapped._

 _"You think sacrificing your alchemy was enough, alchemist?" the voice sneered. "You believe that you can survive with only your friends. We'll see about that..."_

 _The voice shuddered away into silence and the white void swirled like a whirlpool inside of his mind, drowning out into black. The nightmare was ending..._

"Papa!"

Edward groaned, half-asleep, bed hair a knotted mass over his face, but through the tangle of golden hair, he saw a young boy sitting on Ed's legs. The boy could have been no older than three or four, his golden eyes shining with enthusiasm at this goddamn ridiculous time in the morning, clasping a book in his hands. He thrust the book forward into Ed's face. Ed grumbled again and waved a hand in the air before closing his eyes, collapsing into bed.

"Papa, wake up! You promised..." the boy started to sniffle, and he literally started to deflate like his enthusiasm was slipping away too. The boy slithered off the bed onto the floor and rose silently to his feet, his movements slow.

Edward watched his son. How could he let him down? Knowing Theo, he had been bouncing in bed since midnight waiting for this quality time that he shared with his papa. _Don't fall for his trap. He wants to get you out of bed._

The softer paternal side of Ed's mind argued back. _All he wants is to spend time with you. How can you deny him that?_

Edward cursed himself internally for being so soft around his son. His mind was clouded from the nightmare, and his legs moved like a sleepwalker. He stumbled out of bed, kicking the duvet to the end of the bed so he couldn't crawl back into bed. Theo's eyes lit up like the summer's sun. A wide grin spread across his face, and a merry laugh resonated around the bedroom. "I knew you would keep your promise, Papa!"

Ed chuckled, "Now how could I do that?" as he waltzed Theo off the ground, and his son shrieked in delight as Ed whisked him down the stairs to the smell of fresh bacon and brewing coffee.

Winry was bustling around in the kitchen, a baby Sanda hoisted in one arm. When father and son reached the bottom step, two sets of blue, inquisitive eyes met the two pairs of golden ones. His wife was so mesmerizing...beautiful... A light cough brought Ed to his senses and Ed's gaze diverted, blushing in embarrassment as Winry rolled her eyes. "Breakfast is already at the table. We're going out, so you can have your quality time!"

She must have been planning for this for at that instant, she sipped the last of her drink, grabbed her handbag and marched to the front door. "We'll see you in an hour!" she called. And the door bell tingled lightly as his wife and daughter left.

Theo was wolfing down a rasher of bacon and a slice of toast at the same time, while Ed leaned back in his chair, which creaked protesting beneath him, and sipped his coffee. "Good?"

His son manged a huge nod before his attention returned to his breakfast. There was no doubt about it where Theo had inherited his appetite from.

However, as quickly as he had started the meal, it had vanished like summer which drifts into autumn. Theo took the book, miraculously in impeccable condition, and spread it across the table after Ed had moved the dishes to the sink. The washing up could wait.

"Are you sure you want the same story? You must have heard it at least a hundred times by now," Ed started, but Theo's mind was set. He nodded his head again furiously and adamantly, and Ed knew that there was no reasoning with his stubborn son. The book before him was wearing away from its frequent use, the countless times that it had been read, but none of the pages were creased or damaged, for its contents were too precious to allow any harm to come to them.

"Start from the beginning, Papa!" Theo cried, his legs kicking Ed in the shin in his excitement. Ed winced and mussed his son's hair.

"Ok." Ed turned to the first page, where there was a picture of a family portrait. There were two small boys, one still a baby in his mother's arms, while the older brother smiled at the camera in his dad's careful grasp. The mother was smiling gently, but the father had a tear sliding down their face. Ed looked fondly at the memory etched into the picture.

"Who are they?" Theo asked, but of course he already knew the answer.

"That's me and your Uncle Al. There's your grandmother Trisha - she loved your uncle and I. I'm sure she would have loved you too," Theo closed his eyes as though he imagined Trisha hugging him there at the table. "And there is your grandfather, Hohenheim. He was aloof and a crybaby like Mama, but he had a heart of gold."

Ed turned over to the next page, where there was a picture of a young girl wearing a hat too large for her. A proud mother and father stood behind her, and a stout elderly lady grimaced in the photograph, as though she couldn't bear the thought of having her picture taken.

"Who are they?" Theo laughed; he always found it funny when he saw a younger picture of Winry.

"Your Mama loved wearing your grandmother Sara's hat. And there is your grandfather Urey - he was a doctor and he could have told you the name of every bone in your body!" Ed smiled fondly as his finger pointed to the elderly lady. "Here's Granny Pinako. When she says she hates you, you know that she loves you more than anything else in the world."

Pinako had passed away the year Theo was born. She had held him when he had first been born and called him "a poor soul" destined to be unattractive like his father before baby Theo had pulled at her hair and she had muttered "he's actually quite cute".

Suddenly, a voice flashed in Ed's mind. " _You believe that you can survive with only your friends."_

He shook his head and shock, moving onto the next page, where a photo of eight military soldiers stood saluting towards the camera, apart from the smug one standing in the middle of his subordinates. "Who are they?" Theo repeated, as though singing the words of a lullaby.

The voice whispered again in his mind. " _We'll see about that..."_

The world around Ed suddenly flashed white, brighter than an eclipse, as he heard mirthless laughter singing around his brain. _Stop...stop..._

"Stop!" Edward shouted, his fists clenching on the table, his palms clammy with cold sweat. The room seemed to expand to the size of a gorge around him. Theo's eyes were wide with shock, but his gaze softened - he knew that Papa could get these awful flashbacks. But Papa would snap out of them.

Ed let his tense body relax, exhaling that induced stress before looking solemnly at his son. "I'm sorry, Theo. Papa's back now."

As Ed moved his finger to the tall grey-haired man on the left of the photograph, he was about to start speaking the familiar words of who they were to Theo. But...He racked through the library of knowledge he had stored in his mind, annoyed that he had forgotten the name of this soldier. They were good friends after all. The slight amnesia of the elderly must be reaching him early.

Ed loosened his shoulders before his finger moved to the next individual, a man with a cigarette jutted out between his lips, his teeth bared into a grin. This man...this man...Ed tried to grapple for answers like a fisherman baiting his prey, but nothing came to mind.

He moved his finger to the next person - a smiling, short man with glasses with his hand propped over a radio - but nothing.

Cool sweat beaded down Ed's forehead. Theo was watching his father expectantly.

The next one. A woman with blonde hair and the faintest traces of a smile lining her features, a black and white dog held in her arms. And the next. A hulking man with rippling muscles and...sparkles?

A man pressing photograph's into the smug man's face. The smug man's hand leaning on his cheek in evident irritation. A man at the edge of the photograph secretly finishing a sandwich.

Realization hit Edward like an electric wave. His swallowed the bile rising in his throat... _Who are they?_

He turned to the next page, where he was standing proudly in the photograph, holding out a silver pocket watch for the viewer to see. He was much shorter as a twelve-year-old, a red cloak as bright as the sunset billowing out behind him. Next to him stood a suit of armour holding a thumb's up to the camera.

His eyes strained and squinted at the armoured knight and Ed dragged himself through the recess of his memories. His name was Edward Elric. His wife was Winry Rockbell and they had two children called Theo and Sanda.

But...who...

"Who are they?" Ed whispered, his vision blurring as tears slid down his cheeks. Theo blinked in surprise, tilting his head to the side as Ed grappled at his hair and started to pull on it. He scrambled for a memory, a single memory, but it was like he was drowning in a deep ocean, with only the lonely current being able to hear his scream. _"Who are they?!"_

He couldn't remember them.

Any. Of. Them.

Edward's world descended into a nightmare as Truth's final toll ricocheted off his soul.

 _"You think sacrificing your alchemy was enough, alchemist?"_ the voice sneered at him. _"You foolish, foolish boy."_

* * *

It's too late for the feels train, but here it is on an express delivery. Why in Truth... XD

I hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading!


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